China’s cross-border logistics plays important part in stabilizing foreign trade

Containers are transported at the Harbin International Container Center of China Railway Harbin Group Co., Ltd. in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

China has continually ensured the safe, stable and efficient operations of cross-border logistics, helping stabilize its foreign trade and guarantee stable industrial and supply chains, despite an increasingly complex external operating environment for foreign trade and despite all the challenges and ongoing risks now associated with the development of cross-border logistics.

The country’s foreign trade in goods reached 9.42 trillion yuan ($1.48 trillion) in the first quarter, up 10.7 percent year-on-year, according to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs. China’s foreign trade has meanwhile posted positive year-on-year expansion for seven consecutive quarters. Moreover, cross-border cargo throughput has maintained a steady growth trend in general, providing an impetus for the foreign trade sector.

Despite the negative impacts brought by COVID-19, north China’s Tianjin Port has rolled out a series of prevention and control measures to safeguard its smooth operations and improve operational efficiency. As a result, the port handled nearly 4.63 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers in the first three months of the year, a record high for the port compared to the same period in previous years, according to an executive of Tianjin Port (Group) Co., Ltd., the port’s operator.

China has also expanded its cross-border logistics capabilities. On April 13, a train loaded with goods such as sports equipment and clothes departed from the Xi’an international port in Xi’an, capital city of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. The train will reach Mannheim in Germany after covering a total distance of some 11,300 km.

The route covers many regions, opening up new markets for relevant enterprises, said an executive of the Xi’an Free Trade Port Construction and Operation Co., Ltd., adding that Xi’an launched a total of 790 freight trains to Europe in the first quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, smooth and efficient international air logistics have been ensured amid the pandemic. Take the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in southwest China’s Sichuan Province for example, with its international air passenger services having dwindled due to the pandemic, the volume of cargo carried in the holds of its passenger planes has plummeted.

In order to fill the shortage in international air freight capacity, the Chengdu customs authority has encouraged airlines to turn passenger jets that sit idle at airports into cargo-only airplanes, while formulating differentiated customs clearance measures and optimizing the loading and unloading processes for cargo planes.

Thanks to these measures, the volume of imports and exports of goods handled by the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport reached 27,700 tonnes during the period from January to February this year, up 36.6 percent year-on-year, according to Tang Jin, deputy director of the customs department at the airport.

China is under the triple pressures of shrinking demand, disrupted supply and weakening expectations in pursuing steady economic development, with global industrial and supply chains facing mounting pressures, said Wan Zhe, a researcher with the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University. Against such a backdrop, cross-border logistics entities that utilize various transportation options including air, rail, water and road routes have bucked the trend and maintained great stability and strong capacities, playing a vital role in stabilizing the country’s foreign trade and even supporting the fundamentals of its macro economy, Wan noted.

At a meeting on April 11, China’s Ministry of Commerce called on relevant parties to unclog the country’s freight logistics so as to stabilize the overall performance of foreign trade and foreign investment.

According to a notice recently issued by the Ministry of Transport, China will strive to ensure the smooth operations of ports, international maritime logistics and supply chains.

Besides, more and more technologies have been applied in the logistics sector. By integrating advanced technologies such as radar and laser, a subsidiary of Chinese shipping giant COSCO Shipping developed a smart robot that can autonomously clean and disinfect 20-foot and 40-foot containers. It can clean a 20-foot container in just 90 seconds, which means that the efficiency of cleaning out these containers has been doubled compared with manual cleaning. Supported by their disinfection capabilities, these robots can help meet anti-epidemic requirements in the container shipping sector and help ensure the smooth operation of cross-border logistics.

The timely introduction of supportive policies by relevant government departments and the application of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, will help unclog cross-border logistics and strengthen the resilience of the Chinese economy, Wan said.